100 Days No-Buy Update: Day 28 (72 more to go)

It’s been two weeks since my last update so I’m checking in with a new no-buy update. I’m happy to say that even after 28 days, I still haven’t caved in – my no buy is going as strong as it was on the first day. I even added the counter on the sidebar :)

I’ve been busy with creating a world document cosmetics inventory where I listed every single cosmetic item I own (be it full size or sample). To be honest, the numbers are scary and as of today (unless I find more stashed somewhere in my handbags) I have 349 skincare and make-up products (222 full sized, 61 mini sized, 66 samples). Here it is important to mention that when it comes to eyeshadow, I counted each pan separately – so for example Naked palette counts as 12 eyeshadows, Guerlain quad as 4 etc. I have 55 fragrances (17 full sized and 38 samples), one candle and 300 nail polishes (scary when you realize that 200 were bought in the last three months) and 8 nail treatments. When it comes to nail polish, I’m not sure if I had mentioned it before, but I decided to limit the number of nail polishes I can buy this year to 200.

First two weeks were easy because I mostly stayed at home and I deliberately stayed away from lookfantastic, hqhair, feelunique and eBay (plus they didn’t have any tempting promos). The last two weeks were a bit more difficult – hqhair and lookfantastic stocked Naked 3. Naked 3 is one of the items from my “Allowed to buy” list (together with either Essie Spring and Summer minis or max of 8 ILNP) so I put it in the cart and almost clicked Checkout, even though I didn’t find any discount code. However, I went through my inventory and realized that I have over 100 eyeshadows and clicked little x in the corner instead. I think I’ll get Naked 3 once I put my eyeshadow count under 100.

I was forced to visit drugstores: Kozmo discounted fabric softeners (we always need those) and Muller had Milka chocolates (I’m addicted to Milka with Oreos, yum). I swear I’ve been good and didn’t buy anything but chocolate and fabric softener. Resisting temptation there made me visit dm and BIPA which didn’t tempt me at all. Then I went to Douglas and, while Terracotta powder from Guerlain Holiday collection seemed nice, I didn’t get it. On the other hand Martimex tempted me a lot – they had Meteorites pressed powder which I like 50% off (this one is discontinued), but I managed to talk myself out – after all, I barely touched Meteorites powder I have, not to mention poor Chanel and MAC which lay unloved while I’m attempting to use up Guerlain. I’m really happy that I’ve held up so well. This gives me hope that I’ll manage to stick to my no-buy and finally minimize my collection.

I’ve made a big step towards minimizing my collection by having a bunch of empties in January and I can’t wait to show them. I don’t think I ever had such an amount of finished products.

I’ve mentioned (a billion times) that I can buy ILNP polishes. When the first photos came out, I was so excited because multichromes seemed unique, but I saw some swatches and several multichromes look really close to Dance Legend Chameleons (ILNP Reminiscence = DL Wazowski and ILNP Sirene = DL Sulley). I’m not so sure anymore that I’ll buy them since I prefer Dance Legend (they seem smoother). However, there is definitely one polish worth buying (at least based on the swatches I’ve seen) and it is Kings & Queens which reminds me of Llarowe’s Dirty Diana. On the other hand, Dance Legend will launch holo multichromes in March and I kind of like them, although I’ll have to see more swatches. I think I should have simply put 8 nail polishes allowed, without specifying which brand :)

I know that some of my readers probably started their versions of no-buy or project pan and I would love to hear how your no-buys are going? While preparing for my no-buy I read the first 15 pages that come up in google and found great tips so I’d like to hear other experiences too. Feel free to share your links, I’m sure my readers and I will find them helpful :)